Red Cross acknowledges delays 'in a limited number of instances'

Previously

The American Red Cross call centers that alert members of the armed forces to family emergencies at home are now requiring workers to process disaster-relief calls as well, sometimes ahead of the requests for help from military families.

The new policy took effect this summer, and has created new juggling of priorities amid disasters like Hurricane Sandy because dispatchers get flooded with relief calls.

Red Cross officials say adding disaster calls to the Service to the Armed Forces program has had little effect on delivering critical messages to military commands.

“The Red Cross has an excellent track record of managing and executing both emergency communication messages for the members of the military community and assisting families affected by house fires,” spokesman Peter Macias said.

The Red Cross is best known for its role in disasters from house fires to earthquakes.

But for nearly a century, the nonprofit organization has been under congressional charter to inform members of the military of family emergencies. The agency confirms family news with hospitals or mortuaries, and relays the information to military commanders.

That function used to be performed by local chapters, but in 2011 was consolidated at four call centers across the nation, including one in San Diego.

Disaster calls were added to the call centers in July — calls from 30 percent of the agency’s chapters, serving 100 million people or more.

Some call-center employees say responding to house fires and evacuations in addition to military family emergencies is a disservice to the armed forces and wrongly adds to the time it takes service members to return home.

“It does create a problem,” said a Red Cross caseworker who did not want his name published out of concern that he may be fired. “Usually we tell (military families) that the delay is due to the organization we are trying to get the verification from.”

Natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy, which killed almost 100 people and upturned much of the Eastern Seaboard last month, can overwhelm the call centers set up to serve military families.

At one point during the crisis, Red Cross officials reversed course, telling the military call-center staff to send relief calls to the government or back to local chapters, according to an email obtained by The Watchdog.

“Callers inquiring about Hurricane Sandy assistance should be referred to their local Red Cross chapter and to the Federal Emergency Management Agency website and telephone number,” operations director John Galvez told his staff hours before Sandy reached U.S. soil.

Short of a hurricane, an August memo obtained by The Watchdog outlines the normal protocol for the military call centers to handle domestic disaster aid calls.

“Time line: Call taken, call out, wait 10 minutes, no call back or response — call out to second number,” it says. “During this time you are not to take other calls.”

According to Macias, requests for disaster help represent just 3 percent of calls received by the four centers.